Oka owners group newsletter

Lots of people stopped to help this time but they were mostly overseas tourists with plenty of enthusiasm but no spares or tools to fix a broken spring.

In this fix, after realigning the axle using the screw jack pushing method, I used a winch extension strap (not a stretchy snatch strap) to locate and hold the axle in position for a 3 day crawl into Alice Springs.

I fixed the loop end of the strap in place using a spare spring bolt in the unused hole in the chassis spring mount. I then wrapped the strap around the axle and over the spare spring bolt a couple of times (avoiding the brake pipe) and then around itself is a Spanish capstan way to hold it tight.

I had to retighten the strap a couple of times on the way to Alice Springs, as it bedded in and the axle migrated backwards slightly, but the principle worked fine. I called in on the HF radio for assistance in finding somewhere that could fix the spring and fortunately, by the time we arrived, Don Kyatt Spare Parts (for- merly Fiddler and Clarke) had located a second hand spring and we had it fitted (as a bit of luxury) one Saturday morning.

For a longer trip with a broken spring, I would have put a flat piece of steel or wood above the broken end of the spring to reduced wear and damage to the chassis. Alternatively, a better but more complex fix would be to remove the spring and refit it the other way around. Then the front, unbroken end of the spring would be positively located in the chassis and the trailing broken end would be free to support the folded up shackle plate. However, it's a risky process as springs are very heavy and unwieldy items to manoeuvre, especially on the

side of the road with only rudimentary jacking devices to support a fully laden vehicle.

I'm also reminded that over-tightening of the spring bolt nuts can trap the spring centre bush and prevent it rotating as the spring moves. This can cause prema- ture weakening of the spring leaves. The nut is really only there to keep the bolt in place and doesn't need to be ultra tight. The Oka manual says 140 ft–lbs for these bolts but that seems too high. Nipped up is all that's required. If there's any concern over the nuts working loose, an "R" pin can be inserted through a hole drilled in the thread.

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(from Tom & Di Warnes, Wilderness Challenge)

Last year we operated a fleet of six LTs. Previously we have had eight, 4 x XTs and 4 x LTs

Now we are making room for our two new NT models which we expect to pick-up next month (March 09)

We sold one LT last December 08 and have one more for sale now. Configuration: Safari Bus

The Vehicles are used for: Safaris to Cape York from Cairns, across the Gulf Savannah from Cairns to Kakadu and Darwin and through the Kimberley from Darwin to Broome and back to Darwin. Our safaris are either Camping or Accommodated.

We have maintained our own fleet for 12 years. We have a full-time me- chanic and fully equipped workshop in Cairns.

Found on the Forum of the Oka Owners Group Web-

site:

OKA Paint Code For XT/LT

Interthane Product: 3/207-00010418

4 Litre kit

(2 Pack 3 Litres Of Paint Plus a 1 Litre Hardener)

NT

Toyota 058

I did hear that Oka are now using a Toyota White for their paint. There are about 3 different Toyota White paints, so it might be worth giving Oka a ring to see which they use; not that any of them look much

different. Marj

David & Genine Hallandal have converted a full set of Oka

XT manuals to PDF and also have put them of DVD. If you

want more information contact themon:

Telephone:[phone] Mob:[phone]

HILLBILLY DIVORCE

A hillbilly farmer who wanted to get a divorce paid a visit to a lawyer.. The lawyer said, “How can I help you?”

The farmer replied, ‘I want to get one of them dayvorces.’

The lawyer said, ‘Do you have any grounds?’

The farmer replied, ‘Yes, I got 40 acres.’

The lawyer said. ‘No, No, you don’t understand. Do you have a suit?’ The farmer replied, ‘Yes, I got a suit. I wears it to church on Sundays.’ The lawyer said, ‘No, no, I mean do you have a case?’

The farmer replied, ‘No I ain’t got a Case, but I got a John Deere.’

The lawyer said, ‘No, I mean do you have a grudge?’

The farmer replied, ‘Yes I got a grudge, that’s where I parks the John Deere.’ The lawyer asked, ‘Does your wife beat you up or something?’

The farmer replied, ‘No, we both gets up at 4.30.’

By now the lawyer is getting frustrated but tries one last question. The lawyer said, ‘Is your wife a nagger?’

The farmer said, ‘No, she’s a little white gal, but our last child was a nagger and that’s why I wants a dayvorce.’

An Invitation:

We are holding a gyro weekend at our property ‘Eulalia’ on the June long weekend, and wondered if any of the Oka Owners Group would like to come along as well. We have mixed gyros and Oka together on a previous occasion with great results and would be happy to see you.

It is a big RODEO weekend in Coonamble for this weekend, with a Quilt Show as an added bonus, so there is plenty to do if you are interested. You can contact us on: 02 68228323 or email at: [e-mail] for more details.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OKA OWNERS GROUP

(PUTTING PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT FIRST) !

NEWSLETTER !June 2008

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Hi Everyone,

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Thank you to Tim Forsyth for his articles about various things, but especially about the Spring bush kit as we broke one of these! front bolts when visiting the Rudall River National Park a few years ago, and our travelling compan- ions broke a rear bolt on the same trip on a steep and rocky hillside just north of the Gunbarrell. The front bolt was easily replaced with a bent bolt that an- other companion had in his tool box, suitably straightened, but the rear bolt required a whole lot more effort to have everything back into place with blocks, a couple of jacks, a cable under the vehicle attached to a winch on a Landcruiser in front, with our Oka! attached to a chain behind to hold every- thing from moving. After the Oka had been virtually unpacked, and then re- packed afterwards, we were happy to camp on this steep slope for the night before carrying on next morning. We have regularly replaced our bushes and bolts as we thought necessary, but obviously they can still snap on rough roads.

!

We are soon to leave on our annual trek, this time to go down the Hay River, which heads more or less south from an aboriginal community near Jervois

on the Plenty Hwy to! Poeppel’s Corner and across to Birdsville. While this traverses the Simpson Desert, the track is mostly parallel to the sand dunes along the bed of the river (usually dry) so we don’t anticipate this being a hard drive, but we are looking forward to it. We are going with a party of other friends, including a couple of Okas. Permits for this trip are available by contacting Jol Fleming of Direct 4WD at 0889523359 in Alice Aprings ([e-mail]).! We are including a “My Country Tour” which combines an accompanied drive around the sights, finding some bush tucker (if any about) and sunset on The Meesa (cloud permitting) followed by a chat around the campfire with local inhabitants.

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I have included a piece out of the Oka Owners Group Forum where David

Hallandal is asking Oka Owners to let him know of Oka heavy-duty upgrades

so that he can compile a list that might save other people a whole heap of

trouble some day. If you have upgraded any parts of your Oka, he would ap-

preciate it if you could let him know the details. Of course, if you are an

Internet user, you will be able to look these up for yourself on the Oka Own-

ers Group website. If you need a password to access this site, contact John

Hendriks our webmaster on! Ph:02-47542606 Mob: [phone] or email him at: [e-mail] ..

We are still adding new members to our members list, so there must still be some Oka’s about that we don’t know about or that don’t know about our Group. If you do sell your Oka, please pass on the information about the Oka Owners Group to the new owners, and we would appreciate notification so that we can move your details to the “SOLD”! section of the list. Also, if you change any details of your entry, we would appreciate it if you could let us know, especially if you change your email address.! With each newsletter, we firstly send out copies by email, then go through the list and mark all those that haven’t been returned, and then print and mail newsletters to the remain- der. It is more cost effective and much quicker to use email than to print and post, so if you have this facility we would appreciate being able to use it.

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Thanks again to David & Janet Ribbans for permission to use the material from their Oka blog for inclusion in the newsletter. Don’t forget that the

newsletter is mostly compiled from information gleaned from the Group members, so we would appreciate it if you could pass on any interesting tips. !

Yours sincerely,

Marj Parsons

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Hi Lloyd and Marj

Nov are heading east hoping to get ferry to Tassie 10 Dec for a few months back to Stawell for Easter. We were wondering if any Oka trips around that time we may be able to catch up with. Will Rowena still be at Kal we will try to see her on way through. We are planning to catch with family in July at Alice Springs to do Kakadu Gibb river back to Broome. We had about 5 weeks recently went to Carnarvon but had aw- ful windy wet cold weather. Wanted to have week in at Kennedies but all closed another time. We went to USA last year purchased a Rv had 5 months mainly National Parks had a wonderful time. 14000 miles sold Rv only lost $2500. We were lucky. But now time to do Aus and hope next 3 years will be on road with occational fly back home. I have had someone else catch up to us wants to join club will I give him your email address. Hope your year has been great. Bye for now Rob Shirl (Burows) [e-mail]

Just a note to let you know we are hoping 5th

From the DingoSeatCovers Factory-

Far North Queensland - one win- ter’s morning when the Boss is out!

We had Marg and Peter Wright stop by for a few weeks. Dur-

ing their stay I got the final patterns done for the OKA

seat covers (serious pressure from Marg). Peter learnt how

to use the embroidery machine so has ants running across

their seat covers! Marg learnt how to make seat covers

while Peter was very busy finishing off our workshop, tool

boards, fitting instructions and researching a cutting ma-

chine. So much for free camping in our backyard, their help

was invaluable.

They are up on the Cape having more big green tractor ad-

ventures.

Peter has developed a urethane spring bush kit. I have just

fitted up something similar from Fulcrum. Dave Hallandal

started this off. The Fulcrum version fits straight into

the factory system and requires minimal hassles fitting up.

Greg (fulcrum engineer) consulted directly with OKA and had

me double check dimensions. You do need to purchase an ex-

tra 4 of the OKA 1.6mm front spacer washers. The Fulcrum

kit drives very well no drifting, wandering, clunking or

grounching. My standard bushes were absolutely knackered. I

must say that to prevent hanger bolts breaking replace the

standard bolts with grade 5 as the grade 10-factory are too

brittle; my grade 5's have done several years on Cape York

without a break.

Peter’s urethane kit is indestructible, what would you ex-

pect? I will

leave Peter to pass on his relevant info.

We are agents for Polaris Revervision systems. They have

just released a multiple camera kit. It has a 7" monitor

(dust and waterproof resistance) which has auto brightness

for night time. The older monitor, which I have, is too

much of a pain to adjust for nighttime (ok ok so push one

button to adjust!) so I normally just turn it off at night.

The cameras that this monitor can run are two side mirror

cameras (very compact) and a dual rear 160 degrees and 90

degrees, you can have any number of the 4 cameras on screen

at once. They now have GPS mapping with WHERE IS or HEMA.

All great stuff - have a look on their web site. We make

seat covers, not sell accessories so please contact Polaris

for your local dealers. I would consider doing a bulk order

for the Group at 10%

on top of my costs, which is a considerable saving, just

don’t tell Polaris! I have sent a set of seat covers to

Paul Nott for the Victorian chapter to see. And OKA have

two sets for their new demo.

Any one considering air springs should think seriously

about two things.

1. The type of spring, and

2. The travel.

I got info from the web some years ago that cleared up a

lot of questions that I had. It was written by a Firestone

engineer called Indian (or something similar). Rolling

sleeve type springs are primarily for adjusting ride height

with minimal effect on spring rate change. The bag diameter

denotes the spring rate and needs

to be matched to the load it is carrying. Hence you need an

engineer to get this sorted as its a bit past AIR BAG MAN’S

scope of work! Bellows type springs are mainly for load

changes rather than changing ride heights and are much eas-

ier to set up. However there is only 1 supplier that I have

found who sells a triple bellow bag - BOSS AIR SPRINGS.

Reese sells components to the industry or any one with $,

he does not sell kits, so you know where you stand to start

with. A triple bellows is needed to handle the OKA's large

travel; a double bellows will limit wheel travel.

How I set my rear triples up! Initially find mid stroke on

the OKA's suspension, make sure that the bag is at mid

stroke at the same time.

Put about 40 psi in the spring. Now reduce the OKA leaf

spring pack until you have normal ride height with your

lightest normal vehicle load mid-stroke. Simply increase

air pressure (increases spring rate) to maintain correct

ride height as you increase load. Reese’s triples have two

extra great bonuses. One they retail for around $150 each,

secondly the end plates are removable. This allows welding

directly onto the air spring

so the bags can sit directly onto the leaf springs (see at-

tached pics) and you can also fit internal bump stops. Bump

stops are absolutely necessary as bellow type air bags

pinch themselves at full compression - stuffed.

Reese’s bags were developed for the Yank hot rodders to

jump their cars. They do this by dumping over 300 psi into

the springs fast. The triples are rated for 1.1t at 100psi

and tested to 450 psi so they fit well

are within the needs for OKA's.

This is our first winter in 13 years- Atherton Table lands

might be warmer than a Victorian winter but its freezing

compared to Weipa.

Thanks, Dingo Tim

Peter Wright’s Spring Hanger Conversion Kit:

Hi Marj.

We have been having a reat time exploring the Cape and FNQ. You guys not tripping about this year? Trust that you are both well.

There is an attachment that shows the details of the kit that I have developed (trialling one now.....)

Cheers Peter & Margaret

Mobiles:

In the bush: 0418 278 520 (If you SMS this number, include your name). Around town: 0418 804 221.

For abbreviated slide shows of our travels, go to www.tinyurl.com/35ra68

Heavy Duty Oka Parts:

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Hi All

I am in the process of compiling a OKA heavy duty upgrades section, A re-

placement parts list for undersized or weak parts On an OKA, if you have developed replacement parts them please add it to this list Or Email me with a List and Details of the Upgrades you have. All Details will then be Compiled and sent out with the next news letter

Upgrades including Diff Parts, Suspension Parts, Engine Parts...

I am in the process of putting a Air Filter Upgrade kit together (See My Web Page)

David Hallandal

[e-mail]

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FROM David & Janet Ribbans. The alternator belt burnt out.

We have a Bosch 120 amp alternator and I had recently fitted a Smart Alternator Regulator (Sterling AR12VD) to charge three batteries. Since this regulator enables the full output from the alterna- tor to be obtained, it also requires a much higher input power (about 2 HP), all of which must be supplied by the alternator belt.

If the alternator belt is allowed to slip (or is out of alignment), it will quickly overheat and burn out. The standard method for adjusting the alternator belt tension on an Oka is a primitive device which is difficult to tighten and will inevitably slip loose. When we got home, I built a better tensioner using a tapped rod and nuts with which to adjust the tension. We can now achieve middle "C" twanginess, and clamp it in that position, and since then we have had no problems with slipping belts.

I note that Tim Forsyth in Weipa is fitting twin pulleys and belts on his alternator to address this problem.

A brake calliper spring clip went missing.

While we were replacing the broken spring bolt, I noticed that the spring clip on the brake calliper key was missing, which causes the cal- liper to rattle, and potentially to fall off. Fortunately our callipers are fitted with a retention strap bolted across the key to ensure that both halves of the calliper are held together.

I didn't have a spare spring clip but I found that a 10 mm tent peg was the right size and could be tapped into the space where the clip should have been. I bent the end of the peg slightly so that it couldn't slide out and it is still there, 5000 kms and many outback tracks later, pending the acquisition of a new key and spring clip. If you do something simi- lar, ensure that the tent peg or whatever, can't foul the wheel or the disk rotor as they rotate.

The keys themselves can wear and allow the callipers to rattle so it's worth replacing them as well as the spring clips.

OKAS FOR SALE:

There are no less than 7 vehicles for sale in the Oka Owners Group Website, but I am unable to list all the many details and photos. Please go to the forum for more information. These are:

An XT twin cab, registered as a 4 seater, with no rust for $35000 (ring Darren on 0419 522225)

XT Oka, coach converted to a Motorhome, excellent fitout includ- ing shower/toilet and all kinds of extras; $73500

Contact Tim Greenish Mob [phone]

Email. [e-mail]

LT Motorhome, with poptop and solar. Excellent fitout, with many extras. $110,000

Contact: Bob or Sue on 0266246611 (home)

0266621136 (work) 0412113897 (mobile)

0145113897 (satellite, when travelling)

Twin-cab Oka with glide on camper, including shower/toilet, and with excellent fitout. Sideboards available. $110,000

Ring Glenice on 03 56787589

Oka 259, coach from East Kinberley Tours. $44000 (incl. GST) Ring Paul at 08 91682213

Oka 415, Safari Bus from Wilderness Challenge. $35000 +GST

Ring 07 4035 4488

#003 Oka, bus with Cummins 4l. diesel and Allison 5 speed transmission. $160,000

Contact: Telephone:[phone] Fax:[phone] Mob:[phone]

Email:[e-mail]

Victorian Fires: - Fencing

As some know, we are off on 14^th August to knock over the Hay River track. This will be a fairly short trip for us, probably only 3 weeks or so, as some of the crew going with us hold down jobs and can’t spend any more time.

The reason for this note is that we hear that they are still calling for volunteers to do some fencing in the Victorian bush-fire areas. I was wondering if, as a group, the Oka Owners could make up a team and do a bit for the fire victims and at the same time get to know each other. This would have to be after we come home from our trip, say some time after the middle of September. I understand that you don’t necessarily have to be skilled fencers or take on heavy work – someone will show you what they want done.

Let me know if you are interested in this project. Lloyd Parsons Tel: [phone] Email:

[e-mail]

(Stolen from the Westprint Friday Five ; Funnies)

If you can start the day without caffeine and can get going without pep pills;

If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains, resist complaining and boring people with your troubles;

If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it, un- derstand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time; If you can forgive a friend's lack of consideration and overlook when those you love take it out on you when, through no fault of your own, something goes wrong;

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment, ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him;

If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend and face the world without lies and deceit;

If you can conquer tension without medical help, relax without liq- uor, sleep without drugs;

If you can honestly say that deep in your heart you have no preju- dice against creed or colour, religion or politics;

... then, my friend, you are almost as good as your dog.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OKA OWNERS GROUP

(PUTTING PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT FIRST) !

NEWSLETTER !Summer 2009

Hi Everyone,

!

Sorry to be so late with this newsletter, but I have had computer troubles, and also internet problems. I have now changed to Bigpond! Next G Wireless, that is supposed to be the greatest, but I/m here to tell you, its not! Or maybe it is my computer, but I have lots of error messages. Anyway our new email address is: ![e-mail]. I know I put this in last month’s newsletter, but I am desperate for some feedback from our members about their Okas, what repairs you have done, what mods you have introduced, where you sourcedyour parts, trips you have made, and photos as well. I know that our Oka is an ongoing project, and we have now completed most of the mechanical things, and are now looking at the rust patches that were in it when we bought it many years ago and haven’t seemed to change much . We are off to Melbourne to see Ian Jones there who does some great panel work. (And yes, he has an Oka).

!

I am looking for feedback about reversing cameras. We have just put one in our Oka that we purchased via the internet, and we were advised not to go for the wireless ones, but I’m not sure why. I know that running the wires from the tray to the cabin was a dirty and time consuming job, and that sorting out the wiring was quite a headache as well, and we haven’t yet decided where we will permanently place the monitor. Obviously we should have done some

more research, so I am hoping one of our members will have more informa- tion. I know it is good to be able to see what is going on behind you. With our camper on there is very little that you can see at the back, and parking is al- most by ear.

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We have had ongoing problems with our speedo. We have overhauled the speedo itself, and found that the needle !sometimes flicked so that we weren’t sure what speed we were doing. We have replaced the wire from the sender to the instrument, and have just replaced the sender. In the process we knocked the switches behind the speedo, and have recently sorted out making it accu- rate again. We did this by using the GPS on a straight and fairly level piece of road, and gradually flicking switches under the dash until we have it right, or so close it doesn’t matter.